Gene Cown interview with anonymous

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. This recording begins with an anonymous informant repeating a story he learned from his grandfather about a Black woman supposedly helping abduct a teenager in 1912 Forsyth County, Georgia, which led to a series of lynchings. Afterwards white residents forced Black residents to leave under the threat of additional violence. This threat also prevented Black families from returning to the area. Then at 2:03, he tells a racist joke about an African American man asking where the Black folks socialize. The interviewee next discusses Forsyth County Cherokee Indians who hid in the hills to avoid being forced West of the Mississippi River. He also describes an encounter between his grandfather and a Cherokee man while turkey hunting in Dawsonville, Georgia. Afterward he tells a series of racist jokes involving Black preachers and their sermons, followed by a racist story in which two African American men hunt bears and discover cubs. At 9:20, he finishes the recording by telling a joke about a blind man and a dog. No biographical information has been determined. THE LEGEND OF FORSYTH COUNTY and OTHEl( ASSORTED TALES Gene Cown Folk 301 Dr. Burrison May 26, 1975 TABLE OF CONTBNTS Introduction and Informant Information. Pages 1-2. Transcription of Collected !fJaterial. Pages J-6. Research Results. Pages 7-8. Inforrn.2x1t .Numbe:,,,.. One ::!.s my boss o I have worl,;:-.:,od 1,rith htm for four years. Over th_is tjxae I have heard hirn tell ma:n;y- jo\:es, stories~ and aneodoteso He was b.esi tant abc:i-l1t tell::tng any etf'.tnic jokes bec2.use he 1-ras a.fraid his na:r-1e rntght get out, associated with the stories, causing problems in bis work,, I did ma:na.ge to f~et hj111 to telJ. a few stories after promising h.:im annon;:y-_mi ty,, He refused to 1et me take an:y- pictures or give the location of' his house,, I can m1clc,rstand his concern because his _-farn.ily he.s been held hostage while he was taken .frorn. his home to the store to open the safe~ Informant number one is a native of Fbrsyth county,. He grew up c1,bout a mile south of Ctrnrming,. He is J2 years old and one generation ~"."emoved from the hanginES of the three Negroes~ His father was sJ.x years old at the time and witnessed the hangings~ His father is a builder-farm.er and conseq_utntly had a substantially higher income than most oi' the people in the county who were just farmers~ r:i.1he family is slightly more liberal than the average Forsyth county resident bu.t there still is a pretty big difference between them and your average college student~ Ivlr~ "v~8.tkins is rny- boss 1s father-in-lav,r and liTas visiting while I uas recording o He Tias raised near Calhoun in north Geo:cgi.:;1. ~ He lives in Scotdale presently~ Nv Ooss told me about a man who lived in Fbrsyth county who had quite a reputation as a storyteller, I went to see him, but he was busy planting his farm and told me to corn.a back after lfay JO. 1t plan to return hut that material will not be ready when this report is clue, I will turn in that material during the break or early sunrmer quarters .. Informant one: 11 Naw that story it is ah, was ah, how it happened was ah, this colored woman (pause) lured this 16 year ,)ti\~, old Crowe girl (pause) out and she''kidnapped and abducted by three colored men and carried off into tho woods and they raped her all night long, And when the story got out in to,m the next clay fthe tOim was Cmmning, Ga._7 (pause) this ah, this mob up there they caught those guys and they lynched one of mu and the other two wore ah, tried and they wore publicly hanged in Forsyth county up there at the old Cumming Jail. And those two that were hanged, after the hanging they were tied behind horse and buggies and drug around the courthouse square and then they were hung on a old telephone pole in front of the Cumming bank for the remainder of the day and the colored woman that lured the girl away, she was tied up and carried over on the river bottoms on tC1e Chattahoochee river out from C,xt1m1ing and she was blowed up by cJy.aamite. And this happened around the year 1912 and after the hanging they gave all colored people 24 hours to clear out of forsuth county, 11 ~: "And it's been like that ever since?" Informant Q_ne: "been like that ever since, They has been a few times they attempted to move colored families back into the county but ever time this has happened they ve had gangs that come down with gasoline to burn the houses out if they didn 1t move out immediately and they haven t had any more problems with it, \ Co~: 0Uh, what 1s that joke you told me, uht about the colored people coming in and a,sking where the colored folk hung around at (pause) and all that, 11 Jnforma~ On"!_: 11Well, that's kind of, ah, some oi' these 24 hour hang outs, ah, I was at one one time when these two colored fellows came in and 2,sked where the colored people hang out around here. A boy fhe later said it was one of the Crowes _7 spoke up that the last ones hung on the power pole in front of the bank." Cown: "He was talldng about when they hung them up in front of the bank?" Informant Ou,e: llfilght. ll ~: "That Is pretty good, You said there used to be alot of Indians up there ?11 Informant One: "Oh yeah, on the north sj_d,e of Bbrsyth sounty edge of D,,wson county years and years ago there was a lot of Cherokee Indians that hid in the hHls and reomained there when they drove them all out west. I remember my grandfather was telling me one time, uh, he 1d gone turkey hunting close to A.micalola falls out from Dawsonville and they'd been in the lJoods s :iJ.1ce way before daylight calling this turkey 0 He ,jtj,st about daybreak ~rhen it was just about light enough to see, he was get"i.:,ing, uh1 a aim dovm on the old turkey to shoot him one, the turkey just fell over dead. So he went on up see what had happened since he hadn't shot the gun at him. So ahi there was an arrow through him. A. Indian had hid in the bushes and shot it before he did with a bow and arrovJ". n f9_1::!l: 11 Did he get the turkey'/ 11 Informant O)l~: "He give the turkey to the Indian. 11 110h he did. H 110ne time there was this, ah, colored peopl-s was havinl this church sevices, they was in one of these churches that had open beams, old ,ioists running across the cie1J.ng~ Old colored preacher was really giving the brothers and sisters a good sermon and alJ. of a sudden ole possu..m run across one of the rafters i he just quit -oreachln I J.nd said, IQ,,:,ddamn what a wharf rat. 1 Lr el aughter, And there was another uh, about a colored preacher, he was., he w2.s, up }Jreachin 1 he was really giv-in 1 a good sermon and a colored fellfHi from back in the congregation raised up and throwed a rotten ton:w.to and hit him in the face and he ,:,m.s standi.ng up thore 1Jiping this rotten torn.a to off his face~ F'inal ly he got the the old tomato wj_ped all off and he said. 11cldies and gentlern.e:n., they is gotn I to be ,just a little :n1ore of this ,Je.sus stuff said gotn' to be one of the damnedest nigger fights you ever llHeard one ::i.bout where a colored boy 16 year old \h1s Jd.lled in e. automobile ,;::i,ccident,, Preacher e;ot u0 to o:ceach his fune:('al he told the convrer,:,~attnn, ~K-1101.,JJ.11.,7 +,hts boy JjJce T do, 1 says 2 1 I know he is gone to hell,, 1 Some of the FomeY1 cJa.nred thei.r h8r1ds and co:mrne:nced SCI'8t::i.rnfncr: and hoJ.1erin 1 ,, rff9tu(.1.se that,,, 1 .Says, 1 I -i J_l put it this 1,r.9..y 1 says 1 i I ho~oe went bear h.untin I and the;y- fotrnd .some baby bears in a hollow tree.. So they clirri.bed up the tree and they got up in the tree where the ho1e was, 11,:rell 1 one of um says~ 11rn11 I'll go down inside the hollow tree 2nd vet the hears out~ r stand up here and kee~J the Homa bear out .. 1 So he went on do1in1 the tree c1,nd al.1 the sudden the hole @Ot cl8.rk, he co1.1ldn 1t see nothin1 ~ He hoJlered up through. the tree, sa>rs, 1V,lh2t darked the hole up there'/ 1 Old colored guy at the tou of the tree s2,ys ~ 1 Tail hole don 1t bra::)ak you gonna see wbJ:-,:t, cfa.rked the T tried to g(0t both men to tel1 sorn.G more :iokes but both refusect I think the re;,5on vras because Mr. -~a tk:Ln 1 s vr:ife c~--cYi'le J.n and act,Eid. sort. of mad becq,u.se we were recording jokes she didliJ 1t, thj_r1k were the 1"igtt knid of jokes to tell"" Ob.e notineabley inhibited lvI-r~ vJatkins;t -RELEASE~ By letting us collect your traditions--stcries 1 songs~ music~ remembrances~ or beliefs of e2xlier days-~you ho.ve t'.a<le a valuable contribution to preserving and under.standing Southern history, and especially the way of life of your co!l'.rmnity" Because you have given unselfishly of your tine to do this, the Georgia Folklore Archives, whose representatives are dedicated to preserving these traditions~ wants to protect your rights to this material by guaranteeing that it will not be used for unscrupulous commercial profits" By signing this sheet, you are givins us permission to use this material for educational purposes so that people who are interested can understand how life was in the old days" If you don't want your nam.e to be used, say so--we respect your right to privacy" Thank you for the time you have given to help us record a heritage that is an im.portant part of American life: Signed Address ~ /~/ _(;(c., i ... ., i Agent of Georgia Folklore Archives /'"? \, .. ~ ... C{.:,._; r, . .; Additional Witness. ___________________________ _ Georgia Folklore Archives c/o Professor John nur:rison Georgia State University 33 Gilmer Street Southeast Atlanta, Georgia 30303 A PDF transcript exists for this recording. Please contact an archivist for access. Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions. As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us inaposition to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, andbias isreflected in our descriptions, whichmay not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materialsaccurately.Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment.We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created.Additionally,our work to use reparative languagewhereLibrary of Congress subject termsareinaccurate and obsolete isongoing. Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or description please let us know by emailingreference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.